One Brilliant Big Brother
by themccallgleek
Summary: James is basically one brilliant big brother. Albus/Scorpius fic, not James/Scorpius.


**One Brilliant Big Brother**

**A/N: I had no idea what I intended this to be when I started it – an Albus/Scorpius or a James/Scorpius? So, in the end, I came up with this. It's an Albus/Scorpius, so, yeah. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: As ever, the characters are not mine. I can't think of any more imaginative ways to stress this.**

The cold and startling grey eyes lock with mine. I expect him to turn away, as he always had done on our encounters but, instead, he is striding towards me. I certainly hadn't thought he'd do that.

"Potter." He greets me.

"Malfoy." I reply, trying to keep a civil tongue. It's not every day your brother's boyfriend cruelly breaks up with him for no apparent reason. My eyebrows dip slightly as I try to figure out what he's up to.

There's a sigh, a pause, and then suddenly he's sitting beside me on my wall. I've never allowed anyone to sit on this wall before, except Albus and Lily, so Malfoy should count his lucky stars that I'm not kicking him off, given his history with my brother.

"How's Albus?" He asks, after a few heartbeats of silence.

Another pause. Then, instead of telling him lies, I tell him the truth, surprisingly. "Broken down. I can barely get through to him most of the time, Lily can just about when she really goes for it. My parents..." I sigh. "It's useless for them. And my cousins? They may as well be blips on the radar. He barely eats, the amount of weight he's lost in the past month is astronomical. And his grades are awful. Mostly all T's. Except Care of Magical Creatures – it's the only thing that seems to coax some sort of emotion or words out of him. Actually scored an A on his last paper. But, still. You really killed him, Malfoy."

I turn to face him finally, expecting to see a smug smile on his face, but instead I'm shocked to see tears running down his face. Frowning slightly, I wonder what to do. Comfort him? That seems out of the question. I'm still mulling over the situation when he speaks.

"I never meant to hurt him. I... just... he mentioned... marriage. One day. He was talking about r-rights, I think. But I flipped... I thought he meant he wanted us to... you know. Get m-married. Of course, I'm a M-Malfoy, right?" There's a sad, cold laugh from him. "So any form of c-commitment is... it s-scares us. I never gave him a chance to explain, I just... b-broke it off."

This makes me feel sort of sorry for the bloke. He seems pretty decent and, when his defences are down, just like anyone else. "He always freaks about commitment too, you know. I'd make joke about marriage and he'd just go off his rocker, saying that he wanted to be old, to be properly in love, to know what he was getting himself in to. It took us about half an hour to persuade him it was a joke once."

"That sounds like Al."

I nod. "You should talk to him. He misses you."

There's a miserable sigh. "I miss him too."

I smile slightly. Here I am, talking to someone who is completely distraught about a break-up when he himself broke it off and the other person in the old relationship is also depressed and probably near suicide. For some reason, this makes me laugh. It's so ironic; they're both upset (to say the least) and miss each other. And yet, they're apart. I realise that I'm what they need, to make them both get their act together.

"Well, talk to him."

The suggestion seems to take him by surprise. He blinks at me, expression defensive, like he's thinking up some excuse. I'm about to give up and walk off when his mouth sets in resolve. "Yes. I will. I need him, desperately. I can't live without him. And if I put off this conversation much longer, then... he might be gone. And then what would I do?"

"Please don't talk about his death like that." I say, unable to stop myself. Obviously, the death (not that it's going to happen any time soon, if I have anything to do with it) would affect him as much as me. I pull out a sheet of paper and my wand, muttering under my breath 'I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good'. That's a lie, of course. I'm trying to make Albus' life much better.

Scorpius looks utterly perplexed, especially when I straighten up, put it away and announce, "He's in the library."

"What's that?"

I roll my eyes. He would pick up on the most unimportant things. "Just go to the library. Now. Before I have to drag you to him myself."

This seems to put him into action. He gets up and waves a small goodbye to me, clearly thinking fast. Grabbing my bag, I ruffle through until I find the Invisibility Cloak (which I stole from Albus yesterday; I figured, in his state, he wouldn't be needing it) and then hurry to follow Scorpius. From a distance – what? Did you really think I'd disrespect their privacy that much? – I watch as them converse, both breaking down into tears at one point. As soon as their lips meet, I smile and melt away, acting totally oblivious when Albus tells me the good news. Some day, maybe, I might remind him what a brilliant big brother I am. For now, though, I'll let him believe whatever Scorpius told him.


End file.
